FAMILIES used to sit down to the comic delights of a Morecambe & Wise special on Christmas Day but this year the BBC’s flagship show features two harrowing childbirth scenes.

The corporation describes the Call The Midwife Christmas special, which begins at 7.45pm, as “gritty”.

Some parents may find the content inappropriate for a pre-watershed broadcast but the BBC has no plans to issue a warning before the show. A BBC source said: “The episode is in line with others that have been broadcast. The audience knows what to expect.”

There are two graphic childbirth scenes, one in the first two minutes. In the second, a teenage girl gives birth while sitting on the floor then uses a pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord. The show is expected to follow EastEnders, traditionally another “edgy” offering.

A TV insider said: “Call The Midwife is beautifully done and a real tear-jerker but I can’t help feeling it would have been better scheduled on December 23 or ­Boxing Day.

“I know it has a huge and loyal female audience but do two agonised births go with turkey sandwiches, boxes of ­chocolate, champagne and men wielding the remote control?” Writer Heidi ­Thomas believes the ­episode will still have a “feelgood” ­quality. “It doesn’t have to make you deliriously happy. It has to touch your heart in a deep way and for me that’s what Christmas is all about.

Do two agonised births go with turkey sandwiches, boxes of ­chocolate, champagne and men wielding the remote control?

A TV insider

“Ultimately it is a hopeful episode. It is about people finding strength through trial.”

The series is based on Jennifer Worth’s memoirs of midwifery in the East End during the Fifties and stars Miranda Hart, Jenny Agutter, Judy Parfitt and Jessica Raine.

Agutter, who plays ­Sister Julienne, said: “The episode ­examines the difficulties created by ­living in the remnants of a post-war world in a city which is ­struggling to change. The episode looks at birth, poverty and age. You see the result of ­cruelty in the ­episode. It is extraordinarily sad.”

Judy Parfitt said: “It is about kindness and love, things we all want and need but which we have less of these days. There were great hardships then but they had much more time for each other.”